Minister of Fire2.

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I'm considering getting one of the 12 or 16 ton electric Ramsplitters. I have plenty of 110 and 220 juice for either. Elk's reviews have been great and just looking for some additional input to convince me to make the purchase.

Guest2.

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the owner of the company is doug when I first got mine the detent valve failed he UPS me a new one within days simple installations and not an issue since.

Actually I swapped the piston to achieve the 16 tons. soon after Emailing with Doug he introduced the 16 ton model. That's about the capacity of the electric motor using 110 voltage

the motor als can be wired for 220 then it could push 20 tons the components are same as gas splitters use in fact it would take me 15 minuter to swap it to a gas motor. then I could push up to 25 tons with the components

Minister of Fire2.

NULL

I scrounged up a load of mystery wood last week and it gave me fits with my Ryobi. It took about 20 whacks with the splitting maul per log to break it up. Turns out it was Black Gum (with a twisted trunk, no less) and I had punked myself, again. I was pretty annoyed and was wishing for a more manly splitter to bust it up. I then went back to red oak and maple and the Ryobi resumed production service. That said, I still may upgrade to a Ramsplitter and keep the Ryobi in the garage for special duty.

I am somewhat concerned the Ramsplitter doesn't have more widespread acceptance. Pretty unusual no one else here on Hearth.com seems to have one. I know electric is used far less than gas but many of us split near the house or garage.

Feeling the Heat2.

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Hello I have one! Just finished up splitting 3 full cords over the weekend. I have the Ramsplitter Electric 2hp 220v 16 ton I have no complaints at all! I was splitting mostly stringy Elm. And I was lucky my tree man droped off a good load of Black Walnut that was headed to the dump. Gave him 2lbs of his Fav pipe tobacco. He was pretty happy. I love the Electric motor no noise or smell of gas, just a flip of the switch. I have it wired to my interruptible Edison box so I get a discount on my power on top of it also. Jay

Minister of Fire2.

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I scrounged up a load of mystery wood last week and it gave me fits with my Ryobi. It took about 20 whacks with the splitting maul per log to break it up. Turns out it was Black Gum (with a twisted trunk, no less) and I had punked myself, again. I was pretty annoyed and was wishing for a more manly splitter to bust it up. I then went back to red oak and maple and the Ryobi resumed production service. That said, I still may upgrade to a Ramsplitter and keep the Ryobi in the garage for special duty.

I am somewhat concerned the Ramsplitter doesn't have more widespread acceptance. Pretty unusual no one else here on Hearth.com seems to have one. I know electric is used far less than gas but many of us split near the house or garage.

Member2.

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I need to know why people think gasoline engines are more powerful than a single phase motor?? What do they mean exactly? If they mean horsepower well then that is false because horsepower is horsepower. However, if people mean torque, then they are dead wrong!! It depends on the type of single phase motor that is being discussed about. The two of interest in this log splitting application would be a capacitor start/induction run or a capacitor start/capacitor run; both of which have insane breakdown torque figures and starting torque figures and are as well the highest torque motors in the single phase class.

In fact someone on some other thread gave a direct link to their 1.5 HP motor specs for the Ramsplitter and I saw it was a capacitor start/capacitor run which makes sense. The torque was 12.4 Ft*Lb Breakdown and 14.8 Ft*lb start up Now I know for a fact there is not a 1.5 HP gasoline engine that can make that amount of torque I even looked up a 5 HP B&S;, Honda, Kohler, and Tecumseh and NONE of them could match that torque figure although a few reached about 7 Ft*lbs on their spec sheets, but that is still less than 12.4 Ft*Lbs or 14.8 Ft*Lbs!!

It would seem to me by a logical standpoint that if I where to upgrade to say 5 HP for a log splitter that it would be capacitor start/capacitor run type at 240 volts as it would have more torque than a gasoline engine would of the same Horsepower rating. I think it's the fact that it's turning at 1800 RPM giving people the impression that it is "weak". I recall seeing a Leeson farm duty 5 Hp electric having a breakdown torque rating of 35.5 ft*lbs with a starting torque of 43 ft*lbs of torque. That means if the ratios hold about right that it would require a 30 HP gasoline engine to have about the same torque or a 10 HP diesel.

Minister of Fire2.

NULL

Not to hijack this thread - we should probably start a new one if we want to discuss this further. But..

You bring up some good points about torque, and in that regard good electric motor will beat a gas engine hands down. However, as you say, "horsepower is horsepower" and within reason, for simple hydraulic splitters, it's horsepower that splits wood. The reason is simple - horsepower is the product of torque and RPM - essentially how fast the torque can be applied. Start-up torque numbers for electric motors of of little use (unless you care how the motor starts under load) but these numbers are for essentially 0 RPM. So any torque x 0 RPM is still 0 power.

The bottom line is that a properly geared system, with all else being equal, a motor with higher horsepower - electric or gas will - will split more wood. You really can't take advantage of the electric motors low end torque, because as RPM's drop so does hydraulic flow and work comes to a stop.

Electric and gas splitters both have merits. It's really hard to say one is undeniably better for every situation. My big issue is that my splitter has a 6.5hp gas engine - I paid 80 bucks for it new. To find a 'true' 6.5hp electric motor, I'm sure would have run much more than that. The other issue is a 6.5HP motor would be drawing nearly 5KW of power or about 22 amps off of the 220V line. That is going to take some pretty serious copper if I'm going to be very far away from the plug. The way metal prices are today, that is another 'non-trivial' expense.

New Member2.

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Hello I have one! Just finished up splitting 3 full cords over the weekend. I have the Ramsplitter Electric 2hp 220v 16 ton I have no complaints at all! I was splitting mostly stringy Elm. And I was lucky my tree man droped off a good load of Black Walnut that was headed to the dump. Gave him 2lbs of his Fav pipe tobacco. He was pretty happy. I love the Electric motor no noise or smell of gas, just a flip of the switch. I have it wired to my interruptible Edison box so I get a discount on my power on top of it also. Jay

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Please explain about interuptable edison box, I am getting ***** by my electric company, every month and worst now that i have an electric limb splitter, works on limbs but not on logs.

splits up to 5 inch diameter limbs, sometimes.

I great machine as long as you dont mind handeling every log 6 or 8 times.

It can sure shave off 2 inch slices from the outside in.

only takes 30 minutes to shave down a 18 inch log to 5 inchs and then actually split it in half.

I know ,sound like i am ranting , but this is how i have shaved 3 cords down, so far.